The Bolivian Case

May 2, 2015

The Bolivian Case takes us through the story of how a group of Norwegian teenagers attempted to smuggle drugs from Bolivia back to Norway. It starts with three young women who are busted at the airport when trying to fly back to Norway. Yes, drugs found in their luggage. As the documentary goes along you learn of the larger group who put the entire plan together.

The documentary begins filming the three women in a Bolivian prison (although it doesn’t seem all that harsh, to be honest). Eventually one girl gets her bail paid by her family (and then sneaks her out of Bolivia and over to Chile). A second of the three girls also gets bond paid and is smuggled out. However, her tale is a bit more sensational in that a Norwegian tabloid paid the bill — so they could document it and sell the story, of course. That leaves one of the girls left in the Bolivian jail.

A few of the behind the scenes players are rounded up in Norway and put on trial. The first escapee from Bolivia is also part of the trial. The interesting part is the second escapee doesn’t face trial, and apparently still today is somewhat of a celebrity in Norway.

It’s a fairly interesting tale, and well documented. The producers of the film (who in the Toronto showing performed a Q&A afterwards) are, um, interesting. I’ll leave it at that.